GrahamC

Are you planning on going skimmerless?

University kids have been known to swallow goldfish .. perhaps this guy was trying to start a new trend?

Oxygenation apparently occurs mostly when the air bubble is formed, and a miniscule amount occurs as the bubble rises to the surface. The EPA define bubble size as coarse and fine. Fine is less than 2 mm. And more efficient oxygenation occurs with fine bubbles. I've seen those fine bubblers on youtube but never seen them in shops so I think they must be experimental or just not in mass production. Coarse bubbles have most of their effect on water oxygenation by destratifying the water and moving deoxygenated water to the surface. As mentioned above a power head has the same effect, and a HOB waterfall filter perhaps even more so as the falling water can shear the larger bubbles formed at the surface into smaller ones which are then pushed below the surface. PS: air stones need to be replaced every couple of months or cleaned as they rapidly clog up with dust pulled out of the air.

Yep, that sums it up.

I think that's why the tank is Barbie pink!

Found this one as well. http://www.coolhunting.com/design/floating-garden.php that little pump at the bottom left drives water up into the floating garden over a layer of sand which oxidises the ammonia to nitrates, which is then removed by the plant roots, and then flows back into the tank through those right hand pipes.

Which site did you find that one on?

That was the intent .. but perhaps they're too sensitive to too much nitrates as mine have gone yellow. That box filter looks as though it should still be working?

External box filters are air driven and have an open top. I was wanting some to put my lucky bamboo into! I found diagrams of them, and how they worked in You and Your Aquarium, Dick Mills © 1986. Also has an engraving of a 19th Century iron/glass Victorian aquarium, but not interested in getting one of those!

Box filters are used in breeding tanks. I'm not sure if it's any different than a sponge filter except you can replace the filter wool. I've tried to buy external box filters that I saw in old aquarium books but no LFS I've visited has even heard of such a beast!

I think it depends on whom you read. Most advise against putting tanks against sunlight windows because of algae growth. But a heavily planted tank can out compete the algae so it's not much of an issue. And the sun light beats having to pay for artificial lighting. When should the water be changed? I don't know. What do I get by changing the water? Adding Co2? But I add Excel occasionally. And I keep adding fish food which I can remove by trimming the plants.

I think he runs the lights at night time, so $2.94 per month.

Mine is working fine. Seachem AmmoniaAlert monitor says < 0.02 ppm of free ammonia. And fish are breeding on the wrong side of the filter :thup:

I have a 60L low tech planted tank I set up in Feb, and it has a few zebra danios, and some snails. No water change yet, only top ups for evaporation. Ammonia 0, and nitrates were low when I last checked. Sits in the north facing window and not much algae either.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/help/663/top-seller-programme

Is your tank reading 0.25 ppm ammonia constantly?

Only probably happen when a significant competitor appears to TM.

Since they're air pockets, they must have either been introduced at the time of the tank manufacture, or, are coming in now from the outside. In the latter case you would then expect it to be near the air interface but they're not. Ergo, a manufacturing issue and not generally a cause for concern.

Are you sure those air bubbles are new? And did you breach the inner seal to pop one of those bubbles??

So, what's the running cost of this? A few cents a day?

I read once that it made economic sense for vendors to drop their low margin, high maintenance customers and just concentrate on their high margin customers.

What is your issue with this statement? As I understand it, low tech planted tanks only need to do water changes every 6 months. In fact I'm not sure they even "need" to do it that frequently.

Two sellers purchase an item that costs $100+gst from distributor, and both sell at auction $200. Now some auction houses will add GST on to that, but TM everything seems to be sold GST inclusive. So, ignoring the GST component in TM's success fees, the GST registered vendor nets $74, and the non GST registered vendor nets $85. In this scenario, the latter earns 15% more. But the actual percentage will vary. So the non-GST registered vendor can afford to sell below the price that the GST registered vendor sells at.

hard to beat them by joining them as you still have the 15% GST disadvantage

Suck it and see ?